He was born with the given name of Robert William Arthur Cook.
He wanted to write under the name of Robin Cook.
But that name was already taken by a bestselling American novelist.
So he became Derek Raymond.
Today is the 80th anniversary of his birth.
I tooled around the Net to see what new things I could find.
The first four links are the usual ones. Beyond those are new.
Raymond Revuebar: Derek Raymond on the net
I Was Dora Suarez is “a trip round hell that would have William Burroughs looking for the emergency exit after the first few pages.”
Crime and Detective Stories, Issue 47 – Derek Raymond, The Life and Work
Flickr: Looking for The Factory
Murió con los ojos abiertos/ Derek Raymond
A Conversation with Conrad Williams
What has Derek Raymond meant to you and your writing?
Raymond has been a huge influence on me. He showed me that writing about bleak things didn’t necessarily mean that your audience wouldn’t follow you. In his Factory novels, he plumbed the depths of human awfulness, yet the stories were redeemed by his anonymous hero’s pure moral drive. The Detective Sergeant was a foul-mouthed, impudent wreck of a man, but he defended victims, especially female victims, to the hilt. Those five books, and also his last novel, Not Till the Red Fog Rises, have pride of place on my bookshelves. I only wish they were more readily available. His autobiography, The Hidden Files, is also essential reading.
Derek Raymond’s Factory novels will finally be properly available in e this year.
You want all of them.
Previously here and at my other blogs:
Gorgeous Cover For Derek Raymond
I Must Read Writer Cathi Unsworth
Derek Raymond: Read ALL Of His Work
The Immortal Writer Derek Raymond
Derek Raymond Still Lives
Derek Raymond Is Your Year-End Reading
God Bless Writer Derek Raymond
Writer Derek Raymond Tribute
Writer Derek Raymond
Derek Raymond: He Makes All Others Look Like Shit
Mike Cane’s xBlog 
There seems to be an error in the link to Derek Raymond: Real ALL Of His Work.
If you click the link it sends you to the page of search results for “Derek Raymond” on ebooktest.wordpress.com, not to the indicated post.
Stupid C&P error. Fixed that and another post that had it too. Thanks!
I’d never heard of Derek Raymond until you mentioned him. He’s on my list to read along with several other great writers. I will confess and say that I had a WTF moment when I learned his real name was Robin Cook and then I ran to go and investigate. Don’t ask.
The first book I got my mother to buy on the Kindle was the first book in the Factory series. Pretty sure she’s going to be buying the rest as they come out.
OMG. You either have a very strong Mom or she’s going to hate you for that.
Hahaha. If anything, she’s got a higher tolerance for these sort of things than I do :-)
She’d probably love The Shadow Line too if she’s into crime fiction.